Harman is now shipping its ARCOS Adaptive Room Correction and Optimization System, an integrated software and hardware package for setting up a JBL Synthesis multichannel audio system.

Harman ARCOS adaptive room correction and optimization system.According to the company, ARCOS compensates for resonances and irregularities in home theater environments, and also provides time delay correction so the signals from all the speakers arrive at the listener’s ears at the same time for accurate imaging, along with speaker-level calibration and additional benefits.

The JBL Synthesis ARCOS system builds upon the Harman Audio Test System (H.A.T.S.) hardware and software suite. It also incorporates the functionality of the JBL Synthesis SDEC digital equalizer hardware and software and adds a new on-screen graphical user interface (GUI) and a fully integrated Wizard, which will take a user through Sound Field Management (SFM), Room EQ, subwoofer and mains blending, system and preamp setup, speaker functional test, source DVD/Blu-Ray setup, and listening test steps.

ARCOS utilizes eight microphones throughout the room to measure room and speaker acoustics, and supports the exclusive Harman Sound Field Management (SFM) system that minimizes seat-to-seat variation in bass response in a home theater system.

ARCOS features multi-step AutoEQ that uses more than 200 bands of fully parametric digital equalization that can be adjusted from 1/100 octave to more than 4 octaves wide between 20Hz – 20kHz to correct for dips and peaks throughout the frequency range. After the system is calibrated, ARCOS displays the actual corrected room curve. In addition, ARCOS incorporates a new AutoCurveSum process that optimizes the crossover blend between the subwoofers and any number of main speakers, by using a combination of delay and phase filters.